Re: EMPOWERMENT: Recommended Reading

[Norman Kurland <thirdway@cesj.org>]

Richard and Friends in the Economics of Empowerment Group,

I'm anxious to get our group underway in developing concepts and programs that 
lead to universal economic empowerment of every member of the human race.  
Without democratizing economic power political democracy is ultimately 
unworkable, in my opinion.  Hence, our group has the potential to be a vanguard 
within COG of post-scarcity visionaries like Louis Kelso, Buckminster Fuller, 
the CESJ network, Robert
Ashford, Rodney Shakespeare, Bill Greider, Jeff Gates and Shann Turnbull.  
Having spent a week consulting with leaders in Tanzania on "The Third Way" I am 
more than ever convinced that this "vanguard" is on the right path.  So let's 
commit ourselves to first reading the recommended writings listed by our 
coordinator, Richard, and then critiquing the definitions, principles, logic 
and vision expressed in
these writings, so that our group becomes more united and able to move in an 
organized way to achieve the goals stated in the "Statement of Shared Vision" 
composed by Shann and me.  In other words, all of us should do our homework in 
order to interact in a collegial manner, starting with the reading of some 
basic writings.

In the final analysis, good theories are good, no matter how out-of-the-box 
they are, because they don't try to change human nature, and therefore are more 
pactical than defective ideas and can be made to work for the good of all.  
With this in mind, I would like to substitute for my original fifth paper, "A 
Personal Journey to the Third Way", two practical "Third Way" proposals that 
address specific crises
that America and the world now face, the first relating to the 
Palestinian-Israeli conflict over "holy land" as a breeding ground for global 
suicide terrorism (as updated this week), and the second dealing with how 
America can launch a bottom-up model of Capital Homesteading for financing 
faster rates of capital growth as it avoids bankruptcy of the Social Security 
system.  Hence, I would suggest these
substitutes for the "Personal Journey" paper:

5. "The Abraham Federation: A New Framework for Peace in the Middle East" 
(Updated October 2001), 
http://www.cesj.org/homestead/strategies/regional-global/abrahamfederation-nk.html

6. "Saving the Social Security System," 
http://www.cesj.org/homestead/reforms/other/savingsocialsecurity-nk.html

Both of these are "economic empowerment" action proposals that our group should 
seriously consider, offer constructive comments and suggest changes that will 
enhance their probability for influencing policymakers.

Looking forward to a vigorous, focused, mutually respectful and healthy 
exchange of views, without the egoism, diversionary rhetoric and personal 
attacks on other discussion groups.  The CESJ Code of Ethics 
(http://www.cesj.org/about/codeofethics.htm) may offer some ideas on how to 
sustain a collegial and action-oriented atmosphere within our discussion group. 
 On the other hand, I'm sure Richard will do a
good job keeping us on track as we head toward our goal of universal economic 
empowerment.

I am sending out blind cc's to many people in the CESJ network in hope that 
many of them will see the value of joining the group and helping to shape its 
action proposals.  Please join in on what I hope will be the most useful group 
of action-intellectuals trying to make the world work better for everyone, 
especially the poorest and most powerless among us.

Norm Kurland
Center for Economic and Social Justice
http://www.cesj.org

Richard Stutsman wrote:

> Fellow Participants in the Economics of Empowerment group ...
> and Dan Bell and Michael Kreyche:
>
> I have been remiss in soliciting and posting recommended readings for this 
>group. I received recommendations from Norm and Shann at the initiation of 
>this group but never got around to asking that they be copied to the COG 
>library or included in the introductory letter or home page.
>
> I'm going to go ahead and post Norm's and Shann's lists of 5 recommended 
>readings herein. Other participants are welcome and encouraged to make their 
>own suggestions. Suggestions should be pertinent to the charter of this 
>discussion, which is to come up with ways to promote and achieve the goals of 
>the "Statement of Shared Vision" found at 
>http://www.cesj.org/about/programs/declarations/sharedvision.htm.
>
> Mr. Kreyche, please take steps to include these readings in the COG library 
>if they are not already included. Or, at your discretion, you may simply want 
>to provide links to the original sources, some of which might require special 
>permission to copy to another Web site.
>
> As for how to include these and other lists in the introductory material, let 
>me entertain suggestions as to whether the list should be included inline or 
>should be referenced as a link to a separate Web page, and whether each item 
>should annotated with more or less information than appears below.
>
> Norman Kurland sent me the following list of recommended readings on 
>September 6, 2001:
>
> At 11:16 PM -0400 9/6/01, Norman Kurland wrote:
> 1.  Chaper 5 ("Economic Rights and Economic Justice") of "The Capitalist 
>Manifesto" by Kelso and Adler, which can be downloaded from the web site of 
>the Kelso Institute for the Study of Economic Systems at 
><http://www.kelsoinstitute.org>http://www.kelsoinstitute.org.
>
> 2.  Kelso's critique of "Das Capital", entitled "Karl Marx: The Almost 
>Capitalist", retrievable by clicking on  
><http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/almostcapitalist.htm>KARL MARX: The Almost 
>Capitalist By Louis O. Kelso. 
><http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/almostcapitalist.htm>http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/almostcapitalist.htm
>
> 3.  CESJ Paper on "The Third Way", 
><http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/paradigmpapers/pressclub-nkmgdb-ppr.htm>http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/paradigmpapers/pressclub-nkmgdb-ppr.htm
>
> 4.  <http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm>Capital Homestead Act 
>Summary. 
><http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm>http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm
>
> 5.  <http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/history3rd/personaljourney-nk.html>A 
>Personal Journey to the Third Way. 
><http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/history3rd/personaljourney-nk.html>http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/history3rd/personaljourney-nk.html
>
> In addition to these briefer pieces, we should recommend that all 
>participants (1) visit the CESJ web site at 
><http://www.cesj.org>http://www.cesj.org for papers of many binary proponents, 
>including some by Robert Ashford and Rodney Shakespeare, and (2) read the 
>books "Binary Economics: The New Paradigm" by A&S and Kelso's first book with 
>philosopher Mortimer J. Adler, "The Capitalist Manifesto."
>
> Shann Turnbull submitted the following list on September 9, 2001:
>
> At 3:22 PM +1000 9/9/01, Shann Turnbull wrote:
> Earlier on Norm suggested five reference articles so here are mine:
>
> Democratising the Wealth of Nations, The Company Directors' Association of 
>Australia, Sydney, 1975. Republished electronically by COG 2000 at: 
>http://cog.kent.edu/lib/TurnbullBook/TurnbullBook.htm
>
> 'New Strategies for Structuring Society From a Cashflow Paradigm', presented 
>to the Fourth Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of 
>Socio-Economics held at the Graduate School of Management, University of 
>California, Irvine, California, U.S.A. in a "track" on the Third Way, Friday, 
>March 27, 1992. http://cog.kent.edu/lib/turnbull1/turnbull1.html
>
> 'Stakeholder Governance: A cybernetic and property rights analysis', 
>Corporate Governance: An International Review, Blackwell, 5:1. pp. 11-23, 
>January, 1997.  http://cog.kent.edu/lib/turnbull6/turnbull6.html. Re-published 
>in Corporate Governance: The history of management thought, Ed. R. I. Tricker, 
>pp. 40113, Ashgate Publishing, 2000, London.
>
> 'Should Ownership Last Forever?', Journal of Socio-Economics, 27:3, pp. 
>341-363, 1998.
> http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=137382
>
> 'Transforming Society', Perspectives, World Business Academy, San Francisco, 
>Winter, 1992.
>
> The last article is attached but is not available on a web page.  Perhaps Dan 
>might like to add it the COG library?
>
> --
> Richard A. Stutsman, Director
> WorldWorks Symposium: An inquiry into how the world works
> URL <http://www.worldworks.org>